it was possessed them, and what they intended to do, and to command
them off; assuring them that if they stayed till daylight they
would have a hundred thousand men about their ears: I say I left
them, and went among those flying people, taking only two of our
men with me; and there was, indeed, a piteous spectacle among them.
Some of them had their feet terribly burned with trampling and
running through the fire; others their hands burned; one of the
women had fallen down in the fire, and was very much burned before
she could get out again; and two or three of the men had cuts in
their backs and thighs, from our men pursuing; and another was shot
through the body and died while I was there.
I would fain have learned what the occasion of all this was; but I
could not understand one word they said; though, by signs, I
perceived some of them knew not what was the occasion themselves.
I was so terrified in my thoughts at this outrageous attempt that I
could not stay there, but went back to my own men, and resolved to
go into the middle of the town, through the fire, or whatever might
be in the way, and put an end to it, cost what it would;
accordingly, as I came back to my men, I told them my resolution,
and commanded them to follow me, when, at the very moment, came
four of our men, with the boatswain at their head, roving over
heaps of bodies they had killed, all covered with blood and dust,
as if they wanted more people to massacre, when our men hallooed to
them as loud as they could halloo; and with much ado one of them
made them hear, so that they knew who we were, and came up to us.
As soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo like a shout of
triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without
waiting to hear me, “Captain,” says he, “noble captain! I am glad
you are come; we have not half done yet. Villainous hell-hound
dogs! I’ll kill as many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his
head: we have sworn to spare none of them; we’ll root out the very
nation of them from the earth;” and thus he ran on, out of breath,
too, with action, and would not give us leave to speak a word. At
last, raising my voice that I might silence him a little,
“Barbarous dog!” said I, “what are you doing! I won’t have one
creature touched more, upon pain of death; I charge you, upon your
life, to stop your hands, and stand still here, or you are a dead
man this minute.” – “Why, sir,” says he, “do you know what you do,
or what they have done? If you want a reason for what we have
done, come hither;” and with that he showed me the poor fellow
hanging, with his throat cut.
I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time would have
been forward enough; but I thought they had carried their rage too
far, and remembered Jacob’s words to his sons Simeon and Levi:
“Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it
was cruel.” But I had now a new task upon my hands; for when the
men I had carried with me saw the sight, as I had done, I had as
much to do to restrain them as I should have had with the others;
nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and told me, in their
hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the men being
overpowered; and as to the people, he thought not one of them ought
to live; for they had all glutted themselves with the murder of the
poor man, and that they ought to be used like murderers. Upon
these words, away ran eight of my men, with the boatswain and his
crew, to complete their bloody work; and I, seeing it quite out of
my power to restrain them, came away pensive and sad; for I could